Architosh Staff (info@architosh.com)

21 Jan 2004

 

Mac3D: LightWorks 'Sketch' plugin announced for form.Z

LightWork Design announces new Sketch plugin for auto-des sys Inc.'d formZ 4

LightWork Design of the United Kingdom has announced that the makers of form.Z 4 (auto-des-sys, Inc.) have released the new LightWorks Sketch plugin for the latests version of form.Z. The new plugin architecture of form.Z 4.x enables leading third-party developers and core technology API developers to add additional capabilities to the form.Z 4.0 product line.

LightWorks Sketch

The new Sketch plugin technology allows form.Z 4.x users to produce non-photorealistic (expressionistic) and stylized rendered images. Working directly with the 3D model the user can re-render images very quickly to produce many "hand-drawn" images using a variety of styles.

"LightWorks was the first rendering engine to include this type of sketch technology," commented Alexandra Yessios, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at auto.des.sys, Inc. She continued, "It's something our users have long been asking for and so we are pleased to offer it within the latest version of our software. This demonstrates how LightWork Design is continually listening to customers and delivering what their users really want."

"LightWorks Sketch is now being integrated with applications across a wide range of design industries as it allows designers to portray the ambiance of a design without modelling and rendering a complete photorealistic image" said Clive Davies, Partner Program Manager for LightWorks. He continued, "This can be particularly valuable in architectural design, where sketch styles can be used to evaluate different configurations. For instance, early imagery might best be represented by a rough pencil style, but as the design becomes more defined the visualisation technique should change accordingly: pencil lines become more precise and paint styles can be chosen to pick up more detail, until eventually the model contains enough information to support full photorealism."

To learn more visit the LightWork Sketch website at: www.lightworkdesign.com

To learn more about formZ 4 and its new plugin architecture vist them on the web at: www.formz.com

Architosh Analysis: This product announcement continues a trend in pre and post visualization in AEC whereby computers are being used to render images that look as if they were drawn by a human hand. These non-photographic and stylized images emulate a number of well-known hand drawing styles. The new Piranesi software on Mac OS X is a program devoted almost entirely to this growing trend in pre and post vizualization and the movement appears to be picking up considerable steam. This is an area where we believe there is room for more innovation and improvement. Much criticism of these types of rendering systems is that they produce stiff results, but this should improve over time with better tuning of algorithms.

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